BOOK THE SECOND

2. Chapter II

TWO WORTHIES.

IN the earlier times of Rome the priesthood was a profession, not of lucre
but of honour. It was embraced by the noblest citizens--it was forbidden to
the plebeians. Afterwards, and long previous to the present date, it was
equally open to all ranks; at least, that part of the profession which
embraced the flamens, or priests--not of religion generally but of peculiar
gods. Even the priest of Jupiter (the Flamen Dialis) preceded by a lictor,
and entitled by his office to the entrance of the senate, at first the
especial dignitary of the patricians, was subsequently the choice of the
people. The less national and less honored deities were usually served by
plebeian ministers; and many embraced the profession, as now the Roman
Catholic Christians enter the monastic fraternity, less from the impulse of
devotion than the suggestions of a calculating poverty. Thus Calenus, the
priest of Isis, was of the lowest origin. His relations, though not his
parents, were freedmen. He had received from them a liberal education, and
from his father a small patrimony, which he had soon exhausted. He embraced
the priesthood as a last resource from distress. Whatever the state
emoluments of the sacred profession, which at that time were probably small,
the officers of a popular temple could never complain of the profits of
their calling. There is no profession so lucrative as that which practises
on the superstition of the multitude.

Calenus had but one surviving relative at Pompeii, and that was Burbo.
Various dark and disreputable ties, stronger than those of blood, united
together their hearts and interests; and often the minister of Isis stole
disguised and furtively from the supposed austerity of his devotions; and
gliding through the back door of the retired gladiator, a man infamous alike
by vices and by profession, rejoiced to throw off the last rag of an
hypocrisy which, but for the dictates of avarice, his ruling passion, would
at all time have sat clumsily upon a nature too brutal for even the mimicry
of virtue.

Wrapped in one of those large mantles which came in use among the Romans in
proportion as they dismissed the toga, whose ample folds well concealed the
form, and in which a sort of hood (attached to it) afforded no less a
security to the features, Calenus now sat in the small and private chamber
of the wine-cellar, whence a small passage ran at once to that back
entrance, with which nearly all the houses of Pompeii were furnished.